Why APC Zoning Formula Is Being Delayed

As the jostle for positions in the incoming dispensation hots up, south west leaders have been giving reasons why the zone deserves better treatment than what obtained in the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

This development, sources close to the party is what is delaying the announcement of the zoning arrangement of the All Progressives Congress (PDP) for sometime now.

The zone believes it was not adequately catered for in the last administration as it was nowhere to be found in the first 20 key positions in the country.

Despite protests and grumblings about this ugly development from the generality of the people and stakeholders in the zone, nothing was done until towards the end of last year when Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Oghiodiame was removed and someone from the south west, General Jones Arogbofa was appointed as his replacement.

Thus the south west sees itself as having been used and dumped by the Jonathan administration for whom it had fought religiously to be re-elected in the 2011 presidential election only to be given the short end of the stick after he assumed power.

It was believed that this was responsible for the way the people of south west voted against him despite last minute effort by President Jonathan to assure the south west that he would make amends if he wins elections for his second term.

Ironically, it was the opposition party then known as Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that scuttled plans of the outgoing PDP government to ensure that the south west gets the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives which was zoned to the south west in its zoning arrangement in 2011.

The ACN joined forces with the splinter group of PDP from the north which was bent on frustrating the zoning formular by ensuring that Aminu Tambuwal from Sokoto State, north western zone emerged speaker despite the fact that the north already produced the Vice President in Namadi Sambo from the same zone and Senate President from the North Central Zone in the person of Senator David Mark.

The south west was belatedly given the position of house leader in Hon. Mulikat Adeola, the only position that the entire south west has both in the executive and legislative arms of government since 2011.

Consequently, zone demanded a better deal which it appeared to have seen in the opposition party now known as APC which had planned to undo what it had earlier effected in 2011.

Thus, it was a normal situation to expect better treatment of South West from the APC which was partly responsible for being in the cold for four years, especially when the zone also played an important role in its election.

However, in the sharing and zoning of the positions, what the stakeholders are ensuring is that no part of the country should be sidelined as it happened to the south west in the outgoing dispensation.

But all the positions should be properly aligned and equitably distributed in line with federal character policy of the country.

Besides, sources close to the party said efforts are also on to ensure that even within the south west itself, the insistence that Lagos, or Ogun states dictate or take everything are is being discouraged in order that the positions are distributed equally, so that an area is not seen as monopolizing the positions of the zone.

This development, sources within the party said are what is delaying the announcement of who gets what in the new dispensation.